Cece's Birthday Party!

Happy Birthday, Cece! It's crazy that she's 1 already. She was the youngest kid in our group of friends, which is about to change when Gabriella is born. And she's ONE! We got to celebrate with her on Saturday. Brooklynn couldn't wait to see her, she adores Cece.

After lunch we played in the basement for a little bit. Brooklynn (and all the kids) loves it down there, it's a kid wonderland!

When we came upstairs we saw the cupcakes. Brooklynn could not wait to eat one. But we had to open presents AND take a picture first. It was so hard for her to wait.

Brooklynn was pretty good about not opening Cece's presents. I could tell she wanted to, but we told her she got to open her own presents tomorrow so I think that helped.

Cece LOVED the dog Brian got for her. She was so cute with it.

All the kids...Brooklynn looks mad, but this is the only picture out of about 30 that she didn't have her hand in her mouth.

Cece wasn't thrilled about sitting in her high chair again. I think she was ready for her nap. But then when she got to eat her cupcake she decided it wasn't so bad.

Baby Brooklynn

Brooklynn is sure loving all the baby stuff we have up here to get ready for Gabriella. I think if I could crawl into her brain she's trying to send me "I'm not about to share this because it's still mine, see I still play with it" messages.

Brooklynn's New Couch

Brooklynn adores her new couch. We try and keep it in her room in the closet "special area" for her to read on but most of the time it's out in the living room. She watches tv on it, reads on it, puts all her babies on it. She looks at us and pats it and says, "sit! sit!"

She loves to share, too. Whenever Cece comes over she tries to get her to sit on it with her and she will for a minute or two, but Cece is at the pretty busy age and always on the move. No time for sitting.

We will get many years of use out of this. I'm pretty excited because I've wanted to get it for her for almost a year now and Josh made me wait to put it on her Christmas list.

Thank you Aunt Charity, Uncle James, Adeline and Andrew! We love it!

Pillow Pet

Brooklynn LOVES her new Pillow Pet. It has even made it in the rotation with her Baba and bee blanket with things she brings from her bed out to the living room when she wakes up. AND it's a bee, so I of course love it. It goes with her room. AND it's yellow which is always a bonus in Brooklynn's opinion. 

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Ashley!

The Counter is No Longer Childproof.

So we used to just put things on our counter that we didn't want Brooklynn to get. Various choking hazards, sharp knives, hot pans, candy...etc.
I think it started with the candy, she FOUND her way up there somehow to get the candy. Sometimes we let her have some because she's being so resourceful to get it. (If we put it RIGHT in the middle she can't get it, but if it's closer to one side, she finds the right side and runs to it to grab the candy.)
So the other day she burnt her hand on a hot glue gun (cooling off, but still). I had burnt my hand and went to get a band aid. I told her not to touch, put it on the counter--I thought far enough out of reach. Nope. She was busy drawing at her desk so I thought everything was fine. I came back with the band-aids and she ran to her hiding place that she goes to when she doesn't want me to know she's doing something, and then she started crying and showed me her hand. POOR Brooklynn! Later when I put the glue gun away she pointed to it and said, "hot!" and started crying. I guess she's learning a little...it's just so hard. I HATE burns and she kept showing me her hand all day for a few days and saying "boo boo! hot!"
This morning she went to that same hiding spot and I went to look at what she was doing. She managed to grab my container of fish oil pills off the counter, open the lid and looked like she was going to try and eat some. She LOVES her vitamins and knows these are Mommy's vitamins...well I took them away. She got SO mad at me and started crying like she really wanted some. So I gave her one. I said, "you're not going to like it! They're yucky!" (They really are, I even swallow them whole but burp up fish for a few hours afterwards.)
So she bit into it and then looked completely repulsed. Gave it back to me, and then looked even more grossed out like, "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?" I thought it was all pretty amusing. I tried to warn her. I guess I get a "bad Mommy award" for that one, but I figured she needed to learn that I'm not just saying no for my health...I honestly knew she would hate it. Sometimes we learn the hard way. I guess Brooklynn needs to learn a few of these lessons on her own.
And I need to keep my counter cleared off. Of EVERYTHING. I'm running out of places to put stuff that she can't get. I need to build myself a really high shelf or something. With her height and her climbing skills...I don't think it will matter anyway.

No Kisses

Brooklynn has this new game at bedtime where she covers her face as hard as she can so we can't give her bedtime kisses. It's usually only at bedtime. It started with Josh and she wouldn't kiss him goodnight and I told her that the rule is if she doesn't give him a kiss he gets to get FIVE kisses. This quickly became a fun thing because I think she wanted the five kisses. Now she does it to both of us and it's so funny. Other times she'll gladly give us kisses, I just think it's her own little way of being silly. We have to pry her hands off her face to get our kiss, a lot of times she holds her blanket and her Baba over her face, too so it's even harder. Sometimes a simple "where's Brooklynn?" will do the trick and she'll move her hands. What a silly girl.

Memory

Our friends Matt and Lana gave Brooklynn a Memory game they had. On Sunday she carried the bag with it around all over the place and kept putting other things in it. Today we broke it out and took several of the matches (we put most of them away because there are so MANY! It is HARD!) and laid them face-up for her to find matches. She is really good at it and she LOVES it. What a fun game!

Thank you Matt & Lana!

38 1/2 weeks

So today I had another appointment! I can't believe my due date is quickly approaching! On one had this labor has FLOWN by, on the other hand it seems like it's been an eternity and I've been pregnant FOR EV ER! Either way, I'm ready. I'm ready to be able to walk easier, to cut my own toenails, pick up Brooklynn again, and mostly meet our new baby, Gabriella!!!
So I asked the Birth Center when they start checking to see if I'm dilated. They said they really don't do it, because it can't really predict when you're going into labor. I could be not dilated at all and still go into labor and have my baby tonight, or I could be several centimeters dilated and it still be weeks away. I already knew all this but I was still curious, plus Josh kept asking me to have them check.
I actually did feel like IF for some reason I was dilated, that would really convince me that it was better than my first labor. Just because when I do finally go into labor, I'd have less to dilate!
So she checked me and I was 1 1/2 centimeters dilated!! My cervix is still posterior (which it will be until I'm in labor, I guess?) and long. She also explained that with your first labor you tend to efface first and THEN dilate. With your second, it's very common to be the opposite and dilate first and then efface.
Either way, she checked my chart with Brooklynn and at 39 1/2 weeks I was exactly the same, except completely closed. Then at 40 1/2 I was soft, and barely dilated at all...but that was the same day I went into labor. So it's at least progress, and I'm so excited about that.
Brooklynn was a champ at my appointment. We even brought her doctor stuff and her baby and she helped listen to my belly, and her baby's belly. It was really cute.

Nemo

So I have been cleaning out our storage room. I decided to bring Brooklynn's Nemo costume up for her to play with. She LOVES it, especially since her previous favorite movie, "Babe" has been replaced by "Finding Nemo". I can't believe how much she looks like herself 15 months ago when she wore this on Halloween. I guess when you hide her hair she's still my tiny baby after all.

Big Rumbler Truck

Brooklynn loves her new truck! We were really excited to get a truck for Brooklynn. It's normally thought of as a "boy toy" so I don't think anyone would think to get it for her, but she LOVES them in the toy store and when we play at other places. So I asked for one for Christmas. She is pretty excited about it. She's only tried to actually ride it a couple of times. Mostly it's the little guy it came with or her babies. Thank you, Aunt Erin! We love it!

 This picture I totally had to post because she's so mad. She kept trying to pose with the truck for a picture but would turn it on so it would be shaking and then hit her in the head. We kept trying to tell her NOT to turn it on and to give it a hug but she kept turning it on anyway. And she kept crying. So I took a picture.